[Leica] (SPAM: ?) Re: So much for "film is forever"..

[Spencer Cheng]

Dang! I was going to stay out of this. :-)

The digital media industry don’t give a hoot about long term image viability. The CEOs care mostly about quarter-to-quarter financial results and the size of their bonus. It’s the photographer’s problem and rather too few photographers even understand there is problem.

Digital cameras are all disposable in the sense that 99.9999% of them are unrepairable after 3 years because the parts are no longer available. Why should digital images be any better from the industry’s perspective?

Spencer

> On May 15, 2015, at 1:42, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote:
> 
> I think to agree I think that there is too much people time and money being
> invested into the making of digital still and video files for them to be a
> here today gone tomorrow kind of thing.
> It makes the whole industry look bad if people can't access their pictures
> any more or if these files are otherwise messed up just because they are
> old... Like an old Ektachrome slide fading and fungussing. in the corner of
> your basement.
> 
> 
> 
> On 5/14/15 10:37 PM, "Jayanand Govindaraj" <jayanand at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I have been following this thread with interest, as this is a problem that
> all
>> of us have, and my primary takeaway is that all archival systems seem
> to be
>> deeply flawed in the long term, so we might as well use the one that
> is
>> convenient to us and not worry about it. As Keynes said, in the long
> term we
>> are all dead. Your pictures, however, are damned either
>> way....:-)
> Cheers
> Jayanand
> 
> On Fri, May 15, 2015 at 4:46 AM, Spencer Cheng
>> <spencer at aotera.org> wrote:
> 
>> We are going way off topic here so this is my
>> last comment. I did not say
>> to store your digital media using
>> microfiche.
>> 
>> I am aware of a group of digital archivist (including someone
>> from NIST)
>> working on how to preserve digital media in a standardized
>> fashion.
>> 
>> Best practice digital media preservation currently require
>> regular active
>> copying and indefinite transcription of digital media to
>> protect again
>> deterioration of storage media and format obsolescence.
>> 
>> If
>> you are not doing both, your stored media is likely to stay ephemeral
>> 
>> despite of what you believe.
>> 
>> Mark, do as you wish but 1’s magically
>> becomes 0’s in digital media
>> whether you believe it’s going to happen or
>> not. Good Luck.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Spencer
>> 
>>> On May 14, 2015, at 16:17, Mark
>> Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> From the Library of Congress
>> (USA)
>>> "Does the Library of Congress recommend microfilming or digitization
>> for
>>> reformatting institutional collections?....
>>> 
>>> " That said, the
>> end of microfilming is near, despite it's relatively low
>>> cost and the
>> several hundred year projected lifetime of preservation
>> film.
>>> The
>> National Endowment for the Humanities no longer funds grants for
>>> 
>> microfilming and microfilm readers are increasingly difficult to maintain> >
>> and service."
>>> 
>>> 
>> http://www.loc.gov/preservation/about/faqs/reformatting.html#prescopy
>>> 
>>> 
>> Recognizing Digitization as a Preservation Reformatting Method
>>> 
>> http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/links/pdf/preserving/8_34a.pdf
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 5/14/15 1:17 AM, "Spencer Cheng" <spencer at aotera.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>>> Canadian Archive uses microfiche which are stable for 100+ years (or
>> 
>> acid-free
>>>> paper for documents). The Canadian census was stored that way.
>> ³was²
>> because I
>>>> am not sure we have a real census any more.
>>> 
>>> 
>> Digital storage is very
>>>> ephemeral. I doubt if most digital storage will
>> last more than 10
>> years. Those
>>>> 1¹s randomly change to 0¹s far too
>> frequently. I don¹t think archivist
>> like
>>>> digital media very much.
>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> Spencer
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica
>>>> Users Group.
>> 
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more
>>>> information
>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Mark William Rabiner
>>> Photographer
>>> 
>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See
>> http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See
>> http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more
>> information
>> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users
>> Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Mark William Rabiner
> Photographer
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information